GregInTheWater
GLASGOW OPEN WATER SWIMMING COACH
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Most of my blog entries are about races, long swims, or swim holidays. Today I thought I would just write about the routine fun swims that I do in Scotland over the summer. My normal place to swim is Loch Lomond, but this loch is 36km long, so there are plenty of places to get in to go for a swim. Normally I swim in the mornings with a group of swimmers… Read More
Now you might well be wondering why I am doing a blog entry about The Big Yin, or Sir Billy Connolly, the favourite son of Glasgow. He is a revered figure in Glasgow and has even had three giant murals of him installed on the Glasgow Mural Trail. He has been given the Freedom of the City alongside Nelson Mandela and Sir Alec Ferguson, which allows him to fish in the… Read More
This entry is been written during the great Covid-19 lockdown of March and April 2020; that odd time of a pandemic with people told not to leave home. A time when borders are closed, and airlines no longer fly all around Europe and the rest of the world. A time to look back on the period before the virus when short haul flights to Greece from the UK were quite normal. A… Read More
A few of us had decided to enter the Highland Open Water Swim event at Resipole in late April 2018. This swim was advertised as a mile swim across a sea loch called Loch Sunart, with swimmers escorted across by boat to the far shore and a swim back. A fairly accurate description of what transpired. I like to support the Highland Open Water Swims when I can, as they raise… Read More
As the winter settled in Scotland, I took some time to get over the disappointment I felt from the ice km event. I knew that I had to get more cold water swims in all-weather conditions, to prepare me for any future attempts. Luckily, the area around Glasgow is ideal for winter swimming, with plenty of locations to choose from. Our normal swim time is 9am on a Saturday morning, and in… Read More
I had noticed that an ice swimming event had been arranged at Bardowie Loch on the north side of Glasgow, to be held in February 2018. After dipping my toe in the water of an ice event at the GB Champs in Loch Lomond in February 2017, I decided to train for this event. My plan was to enter the 1km ice swim. Now you might ask what an ice swim is?… Read More
Well 2017 was certainly another fantastic year with lots of swimming adventures. I will get the boring statistics out of the way first:- I competed in three swimming events with top ten finishes in all of them; I swam a total of 285 km on 167 different swims of which 140 of the swims were outdoors; I swam in six countries over the year: Portugal, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, England and of course… Read More
A short conversation in early July at Loch Ard with Gillian the Yoga guru swimmer along the lines of how it would be great to swim six or seven lochs in The Trossachs over a weekend during the summer. I thought we could do better than that. So I entered a short comment on our Wild West Swimmers group page about the possibility of swimming ten lochs in a day. I thought… Read More
This blog is about my swimming adventures around the world. However, bear with me while I diverge somewhat as there is a link. If I had not moved to the UK to further my swimming travels, I would not have had the opportunity to attend a garden party. The Australian High Commission in London had been granted passes for loyal Australian subjects of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second to attend a… Read More
In May we headed to Corfu, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea for a well deserved break in the sun. Before I moved to Scotland I took the sun for granted, knowing it would shine in my native land down under more often than not. I would hide from it in the long summer from October to March, only venturing outdoors when it was absolutely necessary to compete or commute. After… Read More
GregInTheWater 